IntroductionAutoinflammatory and autoimmune disorders are characterized by aberrant changes in innate and adaptive immunity that may lead from an initial inflammatory state to an organ specific damage. These disorders possess heterogeneity in terms of affected organs and clinical phenotypes. However, despite the differences in etiology and phenotypic variations, they share genetic associations, treatment responses and clinical manifestations. The mechanisms involved in their initiation and development remain poorly understood, however the existence of some clear similarities between autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders indicates variable degrees of interaction between immune-related mechanisms.MethodsOur study aims at contributing to a holistic, pathway-centered view on the inflammatory condition of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. We have evaluated similarities and specificities of pathway activity changes in twelve autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders by performing meta-analysis of publicly available gene expression datasets generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, using a bioinformatics pipeline that integrates Self Organizing Maps and Pathway Signal Flow algorithms along with KEGG pathway topologies.Results and conclusionsThe results reveal that clinically divergent disease groups share common pathway perturbation profiles. We identified pathways, similarly perturbed in all the studied diseases, such as PI3K-Akt, Toll-like receptor, and NF-kappa B signaling, that serve as integrators of signals guiding immune cell polarization, migration, growth, survival and differentiation. Further, two clusters of diseases were identified based on specifically dysregulated pathways: one gathering mostly autoimmune and the other mainly autoinflammatory diseases. Cluster separation was driven not only by apparent involvement of pathways implicated in adaptive immunity in one case, and inflammation in the other, but also by processes not explicitly related to immune response, but rather representing various events related to the formation of specific pathophysiological environment. Thus, our data suggest that while all of the studied diseases are affected by activation of common inflammatory processes, disease-specific variations in their relative balance are also identified.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a severe health problem worldwide, reaching epidemic levels. High susceptibility to infections of T2DM patients indicates dysregulated immune responses to pathogens. However, innate immune responses, including monocyte functions, in T2DM are poorly investigated. Therefore, in this study we aimed to assess lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced immune responses of circulating monocytes from T2DM patients. The results showed that monocytes from T2DM were hyporesponsive to LPS challenge as reflected by significantly suppressed secretion of TNFα (p < 0.01) and expression of CD11b (p < 0.001) and TLR4 (p < 0.001) compared to those in monocytes from healthy subjects. Furthermore, LPS-induced IL-10 levels were similar in diabetic and healthy supernatants, while expression levels of CD163 were found to be downregulated on monocytes from T2DM (p < 0.001) suggesting impaired ability of monocytes to switch their phenotype to anti-inflammatory. Taken together, our results suggest compromised function of monocytes in T2DM, which may explain, at least partly, high incidence of infection in these patients.

In the present study we have synthesized a novel amphiphilic porphyrin and its Ag(II) complex through modification of water-soluble porphyrinic structure in order to increase its lipophilicity and in turn pharmacological potency. New cationic non-symmetrical meso-substituted porphyrins were characterized by UV–visible, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), 1H NMR techniques, lipophilicity (thin-layer chromatographic retention factor, Rf), and elemental analysis. The key toxicological profile (i.e. cytotoxicity and cell line-(cancer type-) specificity; genotoxicity; cell cycle effects) of amphiphilic Ag porphyrin was studied in human normal and cancer cell lines of various tissue origins and compared with its water-soluble analog. Structural modification of the molecule from water-soluble to amphiphilic resulted in a certain increase in the cytotoxicity and a decrease in cell line-specificity. Importantly, Ag(II) porphyrin showed less toxicity to normal cells and greater toxicity to their cancerous counterparts as compared to cisplatin. The amphiphilic complex was also not genotoxic and demonstrated a slight cytostatic effect via the cell cycle delay due to the prolongation of S-phase. As expected, the performed structural modification affected also the photocytotoxic activity of metal-free amphiphilic porphyrin. The ligand tested on cancer cell line revealed a dramatic (more than 70-fold) amplification of its phototoxic activity as compared to its water-soluble tetracationic metal-free analog. The compound combines low dark cytotoxicity with 5 fold stronger phototoxicity relative to Chlorin e6 and could be considered as a potential photosensitizer for further development in photodynamic therapy.

BackgroundWhereas the complement system alterations contribute to schizophrenia, complement receptors and regulators are little studied. We investigated complement receptor type 1 (CR1) expression on blood cells, the levels of circulating immune complexes (CIC) containing ligands of CR1, C1q complement protein and fragments of C3 complement protein (C1q-CIC, C3d-CIC), and CR1 C5507G functional polymorphism in schizophrenia patients and controls.ResultsWe found an increased C1q-CIC level and CR1 expression on blood cells, elevated number of CR1 positive erythrocytes and reduced number of CR1 positive lymphocytes and monocytes in patients compared to controls. No difference in the levels of C3d-CIC between groups was observed. Higher CR1 expression on erythrocytes in CC genotype versus CG+GG for both groups was detected, whereas no difference was observed for other cell populations. Our results indicated that schizophrenia is associated with the increased CR1 expression and C1q-CIC level.ConclusionsOur study for the first time indicated that schizophrenia is associated with the increased CR1 expression and C1q-CIC level. Further studies in other ethnic groups are needed to replicate these findings.

BackgroundPathogens that establish chronic infection elicit immune responses with suppressive cytokines dominating over pro-inflammatory cytokines. Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection are associated with high levels of antiviral antibodies expressing a common idiotype specifically recognized by the 1F7 monoclonal antibody (mAb). The 1F7 mAb is a murine IgMκ antibody raised against immunoglobulin pooled from the plasma of multiple HIV-infected individuals. In this study, we investigated direct effects of the 1F7 mAb itself on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).MethodsIsolated monocytes or PBMC from healthy controls were incubated with the 1F7 mAb or IgMκ mAb control. Cytokine production was measured in cell culture supernatants by ELISA and cells producing interleukin-10 (IL-10) were identified by subset depletion and intracellular flow cytometry. Endotoxin tolerance was assessed by exposing monocytes to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) following 1F7 mAb or IgMκ mAb control pre-treatment and comparing tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels in cell culture supernatants.ResultsThe 1F7 mAb stimulated monocytes and CD36+ lymphocytes to produce IL-10 in a time and dose-dependent manner. Treatment of monocytes with 1F7 mAb also reduced their subsequent responsiveness to LPS stimulation.ConclusionsInduction of antibodies expressing the 1F7 idiotype by chronic pathogens may facilitate IL-10 production and progression to chronic infection. Direct effects of IL-10 from human monocytes stimulated by 1F7-like antibodies, followed by monocyte transition to an alternatively activated phenotype illustrated by endotoxin tolerance, are two complementary features favouring a tolerogenic or non-responsive immunological environment.

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is caused by pyrin-encoding MEFV gene mutations and characterized by the self-limiting periods of intense inflammation, which are mainly mediated by a massive influx of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) into the inflamed sites. Perturbation of actin polymerization by different pathogens was shown to activate the pyrin inflammasome. Our aim was to test whether cytoskeletal dynamics in the absence of pathogens may cause abnormal activation of PMNs from FMF patients. We also aimed to characterize immunophenotypes of circulating neutrophils and their functional activity. Circulating PMNs displayed heterogeneity in terms of cell size, granularity and immunophenotypes. Particularly, PMNs from the patients in acute flares (FMF-A) exhibited a characteristic of aged/activated cells (small cell size and granularity, up-regulated CXCR4), while PMNs form the patients in remission period (FMF-R) displayed mixed fresh/aged cell characteristics (normal cell size and granularity, up-regulated CD11b, CD49d, CXCR4, and CD62L). The findings may suggest that sterile tissue-infiltrated PMNs undergo reverse migration back to bone marrow and may explain why these PMNs do not cause immune-mediated tissue damage. A multidirectional expression of FcγRs on neutrophils during acute flares was also noteworthy: up-regulation of FcγRI and down-regulation of FcγRII/FcγRIII. We also observed spontaneous and fMPL-induced activation of PMNs from the patients after transmigration through inserts as seen by the increased expression of CD11b and intracellular expression of IL-1β. Our study suggests heightened sensitivity of mutated pyrin inflammasome towards cytoskeletal modifications in the absence of pathogens.

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